Data Visualization Graded Assignment 1
Peter Silverstein
2025-02-20
1. Dating Trends Over Time
Chart 1:
Chart 2:
Alternative: Combining the Two Charts
Though I enjoy looking at the alternative chart that I made, and it does combine the comparison across categories (chart 1) with the visualization of online meeting crossing the 50% threshold, I think it would be better to rely on the 2 charts rather than this single one. First, it is quite hard to discern the difference between the categories by year in this alternative–humans are not great at these sorts of vertical comparisons. Second, and relatedly, the trends of the individual meeting type categories are not very discernible, since they largely depend on the values of the other categories. The exceptions to this are the bar and online categories, which have the upper and lower bounds of the graph as their reference points. Finally, while it does present the same information as the second chart (the point at which online meetings cross 50%), it does so in a much more visually cluttered way. It would be better to present the first chart, which is a better way of comparing trends over time, and then the second chart, which does a better job of highlighting the specific trend in online meetings.
2. Age is Just a Number
I think the first thing that Tufte would say is that I could make this chart more simple. Though it is fairly simple now, removing the scatterplot points and the grid lines would keep the main story while reducing visual clutter (to be clear, I disagree with this–the points add valuable information in my view and the grid lines help with comparisons). I also wonder if Tufte would critique the dimensions of this plot. Although the integrity of the data isn’t compromised by my visualization, I do think that the rectangular nature of the plot does make the relationship seem shallower than it really is.
3. Politics and Dating
Chart 1:
Chart 2:
We can examine some differences in the lives of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals of each political party. In the first plot, it is clear that LGB people who identify with the Democratic party tend to be more open about their sexuality with those close to them. Conversely, Republican members of the LGB community are more likely to have few, if any, of the important people in their lives aware of their sexuality. Interestingly, Independents were the least likely to indicate “Most or all” and “None,” and are instead the most likely to have a mix of knowledge within their social circle. In the second plot, we can see respondent age plotted against the age at which they came out. Although most respondents came out before they turned 40, many older Democrats came out in older age. Though the trend lines are somewhat similar, they do indicate that Democrats were more likely to be slightly older when they came out and that this difference is more pronounced among older respondents.
4. My Own Chart
This chart tells a simple story: we can see how US regions stack up against each other when it comes to whether women make more than their partners. The West region leads all regions in percentage of women who (a) earned more in 2016 than their partners or (b) earned about equal. The regions are generally within about 10 percentage points of each other, but that’s a big swing. The Northeast is the region in which the most women make less than their partners. I chose this visualization because it allows for simple and direct comparisons across regions–the dot plot is a good alternative to the bar chart for comparison. The markers are both colored and shaped separately for each region, which allows for easy distiguishing between points.
5. Interactivity
Interactive Chart 1:
This chart is a worthwhile one to make interactive simply because it allows the user to zoom into a particular time frame, cut out extra noise, and see a pattern for the particular date range they’re interested in. Additionally, it may be interesting to see the specific values for each year.
Interactive Chart 2:
The primary reason I like that this chart is interactive is that it allows a quick and accurate comparison of exact percentages. Especially when the dots are really close to each other, this can help the reader differentiate between points. Additionally, for the “Respondent earned more” category, it is the case that two points overlap. By having the option to zoom in, the reader may dive into the exact difference between these points.